Ha Noi will compete in the World’s Leading City Destination category for a prize at the 2018 World Travel Awards.
Turtle Tower (Thap Rua) standing on a small island near the center of Hoan Kiem Lake
is one of Ha Noi's tourist attractions. Photo by Quynh Trang
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has for the first time nominated Ha Noi alongside 17 other big cities around the world.
The other cities are: Auckland (New Zealand), Cape Town and Durban (South Africa), Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Las Vegas and New York (the U.S.), Lisbon (Portugal), London (the U.K.), Marrakech (Morocco), Paris (France), Quito (Ecuador), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Saint-Petersburg (Russia), Sydney (Australia) and Lisbon (Portugal).
The winner will be determined by votes from travellers around the world. Voting is open online on several platforms including sodulich.hanoi.gov.vn, and the voting time will last until October 24 this year.
Voters are required to register for an account at www.worldtravelawards.com before casting their vote.
Tran Duc Hai, director of Ha Noi’s tourism department, said it was a great opportunity for Ha Noi to promote its history, culture and tourism image among international friends, and this nomination would boost the city’s tourism sector.
In early March last year, the American television network CNN started airing two commercials featuring the best features of the ancient capital to people around the world as part of a $2 million deal with the city.
A peaceful morning of autumn in Ha Noi. Photo by VnExpress/Quang Vu
After a year of broadcasting, the ads have gained positive results, evident in a 23 percent year-on-year surge in foreign tourist arrivals to five million last year.
A survey conducted by U.K. research firm BDRC Continental found 92 percent of respondents saying the ads on CNN have sparked interest in traveling to Ha Noi, as the capital city had a lot to discover in terms of food, shopping, culture and historical relics.
Ha Noi recorded 20 million tourist arrivals in the first nine months of this year, up 9.2 percent from a year ago. Of these 4.3 million were foreign visitors, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent.
Earlier this year, TripAdvisor readers ranked Ha Noi in 12th position on a list of the world's top 25 destinations, alongside Paris and Rome.
Last August, Ha Noi and HCMC were named among the 15 best destinations in Asia by the U.S. News newspaper.
The World Travel Awards was launched in 1993 to acknowledge excellence in the travel and tourism industry and is now in its 25th year. Heralded as the “travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars” by The Wall Street Journal, the awards are handed out based on votes by the public and travel professionals across the globe.